Lassa fever: Ogun creates Isolation Centre

Following the death of two health officers of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Abeokuta, the state government said it had taken steps to create an Isolation Centre to cater for cases of Lassa fever.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, said this while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday in Abeokuta.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Lassa fever had on Monday, claimed the lives of an Assistant Chief Nursing Officer and a Mortuary Attendant.

The commissioner said the ministry in collaboration with FMC, would quickly set up an Isolation Centre at the premises to attend to emergencies of such.

He urged nurses to always attend to all patients in the most hygienically acceptable manner.

Ipaye said the state government had always been proactive on issues relating to public health, adding that it had never recorded any case of Lassa Fever “except for the two cases imported to from Ebonyi and Kogi, who later died at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) a few months ago’’,

He allayed the fear of members of staff of the hospital, saying it did not call for “unnecessary panic’’.

“We are going to immediately create an Isolation Centre here at FMC to cater for unexpected cases and emergency on public health issues like Lassa fever to include other communicable diseases.

“We have also sent officers out to confirm the root cause of the cases,’’ the commissioner said.

Ipaye said a continuous sensitization “is ongoing on the need for the public to keep maintaining a high sense of medical and personal hygiene’’.

“We need to get rid of rats in and around the house and ensure all food stuff are well covered at all times and constant hand washing,’’ he said.